The Turbid Plaque

Life is complicated

Just in time for cocktail hour last Friday, the World Health Organization released a mammoth report on the health impacts of drinking. While reinforcing public health experts' image as Debbie Downers, the report lays out a compelling case for teetotaling. For those whose eyes have trouble focusi...

Sadly, it's never the wrong time to blog about polio. There's almost always a news hook. This time, it comes from Papua New Guinea, where a new outbreak of the disease has now reached the capital. As the depressing regularity of these kinds of events suggests, they're not freak accidents. They're...

The best time to think and talk about disaster management is when there's no disaster. Unfortunately, most folks in the media, and on social media, don't do that. Instead, we wait until a hurricane is bearing down on the coast or Ebola virus is breaking out, and then all start shouting at the to...

The first time it happened was a hot August day in Maryland, the kind where the nicotine-saturated air inside the tiny, heavily air-conditioned house seemed to vie with the humidity and traffic haze outside, each competing to be more noxious than the other. Late in the afternoon, as I left for my ni...